LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 37: Escape
Tianyi's brows twitched as he continuously leaked blood from his mouth, but his body stayed completely still as if the blood did not come from him or stain his purple robes red.
Inside Tianyi's dantian, the Heavenly River Stellar Avatar continued to form, and with each passing moment, the stars became more real. Although individual stars seemed tiny, each one possessed tremendous might and shone brilliantly in Tianyi's dantian, appearing as tiny motes of lights in his cloud-like true qi.
Before long, Tianyi's dantian became a miniature galaxy with numerous stars revolving around his Yin Dragon Pearl Core. At the instant Tianyi's stellar avatar finished forming, his Minor Wind Tribulation began.
Tianyi's eight yang spiritual cores were emitting brilliance light like eight suns. His Yin Dragon Pearl Core was giving off black light. It appeared extraordinarily lustrous yet seemed to absorb all the light in the world at the same time.
Invisible blades formed of wind began to assault all nine of his spiritual cores. Each blade strike left a shallow white mark on the spiritual cores, and soon they began to turn whiter and whiter. As the minor tribulation reached the end, all nine cores inside Tianyi's body became pure white, like white suns. The brilliance they exuded pierced through the grey cloud qi.
Like glass balls, cracks began to appear on the largest core. The next moment the white glass-like shell exploded into tiny little fragments and disintegrated into grey clouds. What was left were eight white sun-like cores and one enormous core resembling a black hole.
Normally, when a core formation master underwent their Minor Wind Tribulation, their spiritual core would end up as pure white until they passed their Minor Fire Tribulation, transforming their polished core into a tempered core.
Although it seemed like nothing had changed, if one were to compare the current state of the cores to the previous state, one would discover that the cores were slightly smaller and had a subtle sphericle perfection.
The Minor Wind Tribulation was extremely quick and easy for Tianyi, but the aftereffects were another story. The density of his true qi immediately doubled, causing him to spurt another mouthful of blood, staining the ground even more. Thankfully, he had strengthened his martial body to the late Acupoint Opening Realm. Otherwise, his current condition would not just be vomiting blood.
It was like his condition had regressed over three years ago. Although the amount of true qi he possessed doubled and his martial body was cultivated to the peak of the Acupoint Opening Realm, his battle capabilities actually stayed the same.
Perhaps it was even worse now.
Tianyi now directed his attention back at Lei Jingye. Although he took some time to form his Heavenly River Stellar Avatar and undergo the Minor Wind Tribulation, it was all within a day. Compared to the Core Formation Heavenly Tribulation, which was a major tribulation, the minor tribulations took far less time.
Just as Tianyi's Core Formation Heavenly Tribulation was abnormal, Lei Jingye's heavenly tribulation wasn't a normal one either.
Instead of the regular nine lightning bolts, Lei Jianyi was already at the eleventh lightning bolt. The ninth bolt of the Core Formation Heavenly Tribulation had already passed the threshold of a Core Formation Realm attack, and each attack reached the threshold of the half-nascent soul grandmaster
"No more tribulation lightning, just end it here," Tianyi prayed as he coughed into his sleeve.
Although the heavenly tribulation seemed to have mutated, a general rule of thumb was that the stronger the heavenly tribulation, the greater the rewards and potential of the cultivator undergoing it.
Tianyi would love for Lei Jingye to perish under the heavenly tribulation, but rather hoping for something out of his control, Tianyi would rather grasp what he could control. In addition, Lei Jingyi was someone who had been reborn and had even become a Unity Realm Venerable in the alternate timeline.
He was a short-lived venerable, but a venerable nonetheless.
Tianyi watched as the thirteenth bolt of tribulation lightning struck Lei Jingye. Its power had reached the level of a nascent soul grandmaster, but Lei Jingye still survived it.
Tianyi held his chin. "There has never been recorded of being more than nine lightning bolts in a Core Formation Heavenly Tribulation, and Violet Gold Cores only have a chance to be formed by those who are able to transcend the ninth lightning bolt. But Lei Jingye's heavenly tribulation has thirteen bolts of lightning. He should have formed a Violet Gold Core."
Tianyi's own Core Formation Heavenly Tribulation had 81 lightning bolts, but that was because he was undergoing nine Core Formation Heavenly Tribulations at once. Although the final bolt was a merger of nine lightning bolts.
Despite just having transcended the heavenly tribulation, Lei Jingye wasn't in a terrible state. He looked injured, but the light in his eyes didn't dim as he smiled provocatively at Tianyi.
Lei Jingye seemed to be saying, "I've reached the same realm as you. Now we're equal."
Tianyi's eyes twitched as he looked at Lei Jingye's prideful look. 'So what if you reached the Core Formation Realm? You only got one core, I got nine!'
It was true that once you reached the Core Formation Realm, your lifespan would increase to six hundred years, and you would have a qualitative change, being able to produce true qi, but there was still a gap between core formation masters.
After experiencing Xi Longyi's life, Tianyi understood why Lei Jingye wanted him dead. He understood that such a bone-deep hatred would not be resolved by simply saying that he was not Xi Longyi. As such, Tianyi didn't plan to allow Lei Jingye to leave alive.
Tianyi understood that for a person who had lost everything, only revenge was able to sate the hole in their hearts and convincing one that to let down the hatred was harder than moving the heavens. Although Lei Jingye now had his clan back and Daoyi was alive, Tianyi knew that Lei Jingye feared him. He feared that Tianyi would repeat Xi Longyi's actions.
Plus, Tianyi was too lazy to bother with changing Lei Jingye's mind. Lei Jingyi had the background of a protagonist, but he was also a reincarnator. If he, Xi Tianyi, couldn't kill Lei Jingye with all the advantages he had, then he deserved to be killed.
Lei Jingye had just passed his Core Formation Heavenly Tribulation, and his spiritual core was still being formed. Tianyi wasn't a gentleman, especially to his enemies, and thus his sword pierced towards Lei Jingye once more. Even if his attack could not stop Lei Jingye from forming his core, it would still disrupt his core formation and, as a result, might even leave a sequela that would hinder his immortal path.
Before the sword tip even neared Lei Jingye, a lightning bolt burst forward out of it. He wasn't skilled in assassinations, but he could still use sneak attacks.
As for fairness, who cared about fairness when it concerned life and death?
As the lightning bolt reached Lei Jingye's body, a red glow enveloped him and dispersed the lightning. Tianyi recognized the glow. It was the protective light of Red Dragon Lotus, one of the famed treasures of the Dragon Emperor,
Lei Jingye glared hatefully at Tiayi as the red light increased and created a bubble around him. Like a cannonball, Lie Jingye shot towards the exit. Tianyi seeing the sudden movement, tried to sidestep, but he was only half successful as he was knocked against the pagoda's walls, continuously vomiting blood everywhere.
"Xi Longyi, just you wait! The next time we meet is the day you die!"
Leaving those hateful words, Lei Jingye escaped into the skies, the restrictive powers of the Immortal Court seemingly having no effect on him.
After bringing him to a safe location, the red light of the Red Dragon Lotus disappeared. Lei Jingye frowned as he inspected the Red Dragon Lotus in his spatial ring.
The Red Dragon Lotus was one of the Dragon Emperor's most famed artifacts. Its defensive and offensive properties weren't what brought it fame, but its ability to refine dragon blood and increase the speed of those cultivating the Dragon Emperor Fist. It would not be wrong to say that the Dragon Emperor's success could not be detached from this artifact.
"Strange, the fleeing technique should have lasted a bit longer." Lei Jingye tried to communicate with the Red Dragon Lotus and discovered that his connection with it had gotten weaker, and his control over it had also weakened.
His face completely darkened when he discovered a second will latched onto the Red Dragon Lotus, "This...is it Xi Longyi's will?"
Lei Jingye recalled how some of Tianyi's blood had been absorbed by the red light. "Sure enough, even if his name has changed, he is still the Dragon Emperor. I have to be careful not to use the Red Dragon Lotus against him until I have completely refined it."
Lei Jingye's goal didn't change, and as Tianyi suspected. Even though Tianyi was a bit different from Xi Longyi, Lei Jingye still planned to kill Tianyi since everything he knew only reinforced the fact.
"Xi Longyi, we cannot live under the same sky!"
Lei Jingye said those words through gritted teeth and began to escape in another direction. He originally planned to stay and look for more opportunities, but with his archnemesis present, it was now impossible.
Especially since he could sense a trace of Xi Longyi's will. This meant that Lei Jingye could be tracked should he stay any longer in the Immortal Court. However, he had accomplished his primary goal of forming the Heavenly Wolf Stellar Avatar, and he managed to achieve a violet gold-rank spiritual core.
But Lei Jingye was worrying for nothing. There was no connection between Tianyi and the Red Dragon Lotus. Even if Tianyi could sense it, his body was incapable of giving chase at the moment.
Tianyi was currently on his knees with his hands on the floor, continuously coughing up blood. His body had been in a delicate equilibrium, but that balance had broken when the red light had knocked him back.
Even as he continued to vomit blood, he felt helpless. In his current state, he was even more vulnerable than Lei Jingye. His body was like a porcelain doll a moment away from shattering. All that was missing was an external force.
Sweat began dripping from Tianyi's forehead as he desperately tried to reign in true qi that was ravaging his body. Tianyi didn't know how long it took, but he finally calmed down his unstable body and formed another delicate equilibrium. Although the pain was excruciating, he was not without any gains.
It was like when he took a test back on Earth. Oftentimes he would just cram the necessary knowledge a few days before, but only on the day of the test would he consolidate it and make it permanent. If he retook the test, he would have used less time than the first.
Unfortunately, this ability of his wasn't useful, especially when the 'test' in question threatened his life.
Tianyi didn't immediately leave and sat in a lotus position instead. Hei had consolidated his comprehension, and even the slight nuances he gleaned from watching Duan Muli's and Yang Linyin's fight also became clear to him.
Perhaps this was the so-called fortune amidst misfortune. Or was it the fortune within misfortune that seemed like fortune?
Shaking those unnecessary thoughts away, Tianyi stood up after a few hours. His formerly purple robes had been dyed maroon, and his white Buzhou Immortal Sect mantle blood red. Tianyi stored the blood-red mantle and changed his clothes.
Wearing blood-soaked robes was extremely uncomfortable. Once Tianyi changed his clothes, he sat down and leaned back against the wall. Forget chasing Lei Jingye. He didn't even have any more energy to stay awake.
Tianyi tapped the jade pendant on his waist and deployed a protective formation around him before closing his eyes.
He was so tired, and his body was numb from all the pain that he didn't see a golden pill from the pill hall roll toward him.